1st Edition

The Achievement Gap in Reading Complex Causes, Persistent Issues, Possible Solutions

Edited By Rosalind Horowitz, S. Jay Samuels Copyright 2017
    254 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    254 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In this volume prominent scholars, experts in their respective fields and highly skilled in the research they conduct, address educational and reading research from varied perspectives and address what it will take to close the achievement gap—with specific attention to reading. The achievement gap is redefined as a level at which all groups can compete economically in our society and have the literacy tools and habits needed for a good life.

    Bringing valuable theoretical frameworks and in-depth analytical approaches to interpretation of data, the contributors examine factors that contribute to student achievement inside the school but which are also heavily influenced by out-of-school factors—such as poverty and economics, ethnicity and culture, family and community stratifications, and approaches to measurement of achievement. These out-of-school factors present possibilities for new policies and practice. The overarching theme is that achievement gaps in reading are complex and that multiple perspectives are necessary to address the problem. The breadth and depth of perspectives and content in this volume and its conceptualization of the achievement gap are a significant contribution to the field.

    Preface

    Acknowledgments

    Chapter 1. The Achievement Gap in Reading: Unique Historical and Future Perspectives

    Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels

    Part I. Cases of Specific Demographics and Economics

    Chapter 2. Poverty’s Powerful Effects on Reading Achievement and the Achievement Gap

    David Berliner

    Chapter 3. Creating Responsive Teachers of Hispanic and Bilingual Students Learning English

    Robert Jiménez, Sam David, Mark Pacheco, Victoria J. Risko, Lisa Pray, Keenan Fagan, and Mark Gonzales

    Chapter 4. Motivating and Instructing African American Students in Classrooms

    John T. Guthrie and Angela McRae

    Chapter 5. Closing the Reading Achievement Gap for Indigenous Children

    Jay S. Blanchard and Kim Atwill

    Part II. Conceptualizing and Measuring the Achievement Gaps in Reading

    Chapter 6. Why the Achievement Gap?

    Edmund W. Gordon and Paola C. Heincke

    Chapter 7. Including Differences in Variability in Assessing the Achievement Gap in Reading

    Michael Harwell

    Chapter 8. International Brain Wars: Adolescent Reading Proficiency, Performance, and Achievement from a Competitive Global Perspective

    Rosalind Horowitz

    Part III. Explaining and Reducing the Achievement Gaps in Reading

    Chapter 9. The Talk Gap

    Terrance D. Paul and Jill Gilkerson

    Chapter 10. Summer Reading Loss is the Basis of Almost all the Rich-Poor Reading Gap

    Richard L. Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen

    Part IV. Contradictory Efforts and Commonalities in Attempts to Close the Gaps in Reading Achievement

    Chapter 11. The Federal Effort: How Five Different and Sometimes Contradictory Efforts have been made to Close the Achievement Gap

    Richard Long and Alan Farstrup

    Chapter 12. Synthesis, Discussion, and Recommendations: What We Can Do to Advance Reading Achievement

    Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels

    List of Contributors

    Author Index

    Subject Index

    Biography

    Rosalind Horowitz is Professor, Discourse and Literacy Studies, Departments of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching and Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development, The University of Texas—San Antonio, USA.

    S. Jay Samuels is Professor Emeritus, Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development, The University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, USA.